Americans Thomas Sargent and Christopher Sims won the Nobel economics prize on Monday for research that sheds light on the cause-and-effect relationship between the economy and policy instruments such as interest rates and government spending.
Sargent and Sims, both 68, carried out their research independently in the 1970s and '80s, but it is highly relevant today as world governments and central banks seek ways to steer their economies away from another recession.
Other recent Nobel economics winners:
2010: Peter Diamond and Dale Mortensen, U.S., and Christopher Pissarides, a British and Cypriot citizen, for their analysis of markets with search frictions.
2009: Elinor Ostrom and Oliver E. Williamson, for their analysis of economic governance.
2008: Paul Krugman, U.S., for his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity.
2007: Leonid Hurwicz, Eric S. Maskin and Roger B. Myerson, U.S., for laying the foundations of mechanism design theory.
2006: Edmund S. Phelps, U.S., for furthering the understanding of the trade-offs between inflation and its effects on unemployment.
2005: Robert J. Aumann, of Israel and the U.S., and American Thomas C. Schelling, for their work in game-theory analysis.
2004: Finn E. Kydland, Norway, and Edward C. Prescott, U.S., for their contribution to dynamic macroeconomics.
2003: Robert F. Engle, United States, and Clive W.J. Granger, Britain, for their use of statistical methods for economic time series.
2002: Daniel Kahneman, United States and Israel, and Vernon L. Smith, U.S., for pioneering the use of psychological and experimental economics in decision-making.
2001: George A. Akerlof, A. Michael Spence and Joseph E. Stiglitz, U.S., for research into how the control of information affects markets.
2000: James J. Heckman and Daniel L. McFadden, U.S., for their work in developing theories to help analyze labor data and how people make work and travel decisions.
1999: Robert A. Mundell, Canada, for innovative analysis of exchange rates that helped lay the intellectual groundwork for Europe's common currency.
1998: Amartya Sen, India, for contributions to welfare economics, which help explain the economic mechanisms underlying famines and poverty.
1997: Robert C. Merton and Myron S. Scholes, U.S., for developing a formula for the valuation of stock options.
Source:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/10/10/nobel-economics-winners.html
